Economic Aspects

Introduction

Production costs for hopsThe production of hops Is expensive and is linked with considerable know-how and investment.In addition the situation of the hop farms in Germany differs considerably.

Besides farms which specialise on the production of hops, there are farms which are also engaged in other agronomic areas. For example in der Hallertau every hop-grower works on an average 13 ha (2009), among these are hop-growers who grow less than 1 ha and thos which grow over 30 ha. Some hop-growers are specialised on aroma hops, others on bitter varieties and many grow both varieties. The soils on which these varieties grow are again varied and influence the yield. Consequently some hop-growers have the opportunity to irrigate their hops and others do not. The age of the hops also plays a role. The quality of the hops has top priority. In order to produce the required quality measures have to be taken which are connected with costs How much does it cost to produce a kilo of hops? How can the subject of production costs be dealt with taking all factors into account?

1.We look at the production of hops stripped of "hop foreign" factors in the farm2.We subdivide the total costs into types of costs and look at these individually. In the variable costs there are e.g cost areas which are similar for all farms3.Only in the calculation how much the production of a kilo costs do we take the hop variety into consideration4.We assume replacement values and capital market interest rates as well as a calculatory entrepreneurial income in order to come to the total costsThe "Hop File" facilitates an overview on all these various parameters. The influence of the effected measures on the hop quality can be read off from this hop file. Explanation: A "stroke of hops" is always one single area of a certain variety which has been treated the same during the year. The size of a stroke is variable and Is determined by the hop-grower.